SILVER CITY — A Silver City woman who tried to steal coins from the Antique Mall last October and then pulled a knife on the owner as he chased her, will serve no prison time after a plea agreement was presented last week in Silver City District Court.

Melinda Marquez, 34, received a 3-year suspended sentence on April 15 for two counts of aggravated assault — for threatening Antique Mall owner Paul Castellano with a knife — and one count of shoplifting. The sentence will run consecutive to the three years of probation she was already on for her conviction in June 2012 for two counts of unauthorized use of or theft of a debit card, both fourth degree felonies. She had previously received a conditional discharge in that case, but that will not remain since she was arrested for another crime while on probation for those charges. She also received an additional 1-year enhancement for having been previously convicted of a felony.

Prosecutor Chief Deputy District Attorney said the victim, Castellano, "took a very generous attitude towards her and essentially wanted her to get some rehab," he said in court last week. Castellano did get his property back and was not injured in the assault.

You have two felonies in less than a year. The only reason I am accepting this agreement is because the victim got his coins back."

As of Monday, Marquez was still at the Grant County Detention Center waiting to be released.

Rudy Sepulveda, Jr., 22, of San Lorenzo, will serve 18 months in the Department of Corrections for violating his probation in a 2009 case in which he went on a drunken rampage on Thanksgiving in 2010 and burned down his home, attacked his girlfriend's vehicle with an ax and lobbed the ax at a Grant County Sheriff's Deputy. In that case, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon upon a peace officer, a third-degree felony; criminal damage to property (over $1,000), a fourth-degree felony; two counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, both misdemeanors, and possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor; and possession of an alcoholic beverage by a minor, a petty misdemeanor. He initially received a 4-1/2-year suspended sentence in May 2011 after pleading guilty to the two most serious charges — the aggravated assault and the criminal damage to property — but had his probation revoked and was sentenced to Hope Recovery Center in Alamogordo in April 2012. While in Alamogordo, he got arrested again for possession of a controlled substance, a fourth-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. He was returned to the Grant County Detention Center on March 13 and remained there until Monday, when he was transported to the Otero County Courthouse to appear on the drug charges there.

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